Bob Unruh
"Soldiers in World War II were burying their fellow combatants under crosses when they were college age. So were the ground troops in Vietnam. And Korea.
"But now, one American university says that just seeing crosses can cause “emotional trauma.”
"That’s the subject of a new lawsuit by the Alliance Defending Freedom over a demand from Miami University of Ohio that pro-life students post warnings about their pro-life display of small crosses stuck in the ground.
“ 'No university official has the authority to censor student speech simply because of how someone might respond to it,” said ADF Legal Counsel Travis Barham. “Like all government officials, public university administrators have an obligation to respect students’ free speech rights.
“ 'The First Amendment secures the freedom of all students to participate in the marketplace of ideas, and it prohibits university officials from imposing trigger warnings that restrict what some students can say to spare the feelings of others.”
"The fight erupted over the Students for Life there, who since 2015 have periodically displayed a “Cemetery of the Innocents” on campus.
"It features small crosses placed in the ground to remember the lives lost to abortion.
"But when, a few weeks back, Students for Life President Ellen Wittman emailed the school to set up permission for the display, the school responded with a demand that the student group could put up the display “only if it placed signs around campus warning people about its content.' ” . . .
. . . "But this year, university officials told them they were not permitted to put up their display without also posting warning signs around campus, basically discouraging people from viewing the exhibit. They feared the display might cause “emotional trauma” for other students. A university official also characterized the display as “harmful for some of [the university’s] community members.' ” . . .
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